In his playing days, Collymore left Nottingham Forest for Liverpool in the summer of 1995, after an impressive record of 41 league goals in 65 games. However, this move, which was a British transfer record, only took place after his preferred deal to Manchester United collapsed.

The following extract is taken from Andy Mitten’s chapter on Andy Cole in his brilliant new book, Glory Glory!. which recounts Collymore’s frustration when learning that his agent, Paul Stretford, who was also Cole’s agent, got Andy the move to United that he craved for.

Mark Hughes was 31 and Ferguson had spoken to Everton manager Joe Royle about taking Hughes. Ferguson felt that teams were changing their tactics to play United, becoming more trenchant and defensive. His solution was to find a striker who was so quick he could create spaces in tighter areas in the box. Two were identified: Andy Cole and Stan Collymore at Nottingham Forest.

Collymore had performed exceptionally well in games for Forest against United and, with speculation reaching fever pitch, was expecting to join United.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard,” said Collymore. “It was made worse by the fact that Andy Cole was Stretford’s client too. Stretford had assured me that the move to Old Trafford would happen if he kept plugging away at Fergie, and now it had collapsed. I tried four our five times to call Stretford on his mobile and he was very curt with me. He kept telling me he couldn’t talk. At one stage I was in denial about it. I didn’t want to believe the Andy Cole move was happening. Stretford never rang me back and I was livid with him. I didn’t blame Fergie. That’s just business. But the fact was that Stretford had shoehorned his other client into Manchester United at my expense.”

38 Comments

Stan Collymore and Derek Mcgovern .2 cunts who i will bash up if i ever come across. i want to strip them naked and make them have a lap around Old Trafford in front of the 76,000 fans.

anyone read that cunt mcgovern's latest article.shows his anger at Giggsy winning the BBC award.why do tabloids have such biased assholes writing for them. all scouse supporting bastards wanting a palce to remove their rubbish team's frustration.wanting a palce to.here is that cunt mcgovern's article

So because of that you beat your wife, shag strangers and talk non-stop shit about United. Glad you never played for us because your a worthless cunt. I'm only 17 & don't really remember seeing him play apart watching highlights nowadays but from what I've seen/heard about him he's an absolute cunt.

What a wanker. Referring to Giggs as a "Man United sub" and a benchwarmer?! You might as well say the same for Stevie GBH and fucking Torres because I dare say Giggs has more playing time than them this season! Fuck off derek mcgovern, fuck off and die...

It's beyond me how people like Derek McGovern stay in their job with their over-biased views. Obviously football pundits/journalists are going to have favourites/former teams but surely all they're there to do is give an unbiased, impartial view on football. It's not hard.

To be fair, I was at OT when Forest beat Utd 2-1 and Collymore scored both goals. He was awesome that day and every fan around me was praying we would sign him. When the news broke that we'd bought Cole it was a huge shock as we were all convinced we were after Collymore. Looking back, I'm really glad we got Cole but make no mistake, Collymore was a huge talent and would have been fantastic at Utd.

aig - Morning mate. I ain't gonna read it. I made a vow the other day to stop reading this kind of shit. The Mirror are a disgrace. At least this shows why Collymore IS so bitter. Cannot get over the fact Coley was preferred. You horrible cunt. As I said the other day and this may sound harsh I hope he dies a hideous death.

If McGovern consults his dictionary he would find that the word 'personality' means 'the embodiment of a collection of qualities'. I'm sure that description fits Ryan Giggs to a t. Unlike some scribblers of the tabloids Giggs leads by example. True gentlemen like him are a very scarce commodity. As for Stan the Scum no words need be wasted on him and his opinions.

Lets make a statue to Paul Stretford! I never realised how close we were to missing out on Andy Cole and bying Collymore. I won't take anything away from his talent, but thge man is self destructive and he wouldn't have lasted 6 months at Old Trafford.

McGovern is a cock suckin whorebag who needs to be smashed up & collymore is a doggin wife beatin cunt who talks nuthin but shit on that cuntin channel 5.... Who fuckin watches that ?.....liverpool and everton fans that's who.......COCKs !!

anyone ever remember just after he retired he was on talk sport or 5live or something doing a phone in and the world cup wasn't far off. england had drawn sweden in the groups and someone rung up and said 'stan, i think you should go to the world cup' stan replied 'why's that?' the fella says 'cause you're the only one that know's how to beat sweds' lol cracked me up!

I was listenin to talk sport yesterday and i sweae i fould of punched this wanker for running down united saying Chelsea will romp the league saying Liverpool will End in the top 4 all while he was ment to be talking about the blackburn match . Cant standard him.

It seems that these people are a little bit jealous of United, don't blame them with all the success we've had and that... If everyone likes you it means that you are nice but can't really harm them on the pitch!

gotta hate - Now you can see why I despise the twat so much. EVERY SINGLE night he slags United. The rentboys won't "romp" the league. Fucking hell to say we have been playing with no back five and two of our midfielders in defence we ain't doing too bad. Joint top, semi of the Carling cup and winners of our Champions league group. Just wait till we get key players back.

Derek McGovern is just raging he wasn't in on the Giggs bet.The sad compulsive gambling toerag would back his granny to get the shingles if he thought the odds were decent.Never read that excuse for a paper anymore,full of Scouse scum.

Two fucking bastards I would take a contract out on: Stan YSB Collymore for his wife beating antics and his total bias towards Liverpool, especially after we won the FIFA World Club Cup, making light work of our win, bitter that his beloved vermin didn't win it against Sao Paulo 3 years earlier. The other one is Derek McGovern for his blatant hatred towards United. What a pair of cunts. Off topic, another cunt is Peado Wenger for his comments about Wolves making 10 changes: 'We will compete with them (United) over 37 games' he joked, implying that Wolves gift wrapped that win, just like the rest of the cunt media have been making remarks about - just heard him say it on Sky Sports News. Fucking cunt.